WD RE 4TB Enterprise-Class HDD Review

Article Index

Our Summary and Conclusion

Performance Summary: If you take the WD VelociRaptor 1TB with its blazing 10,000RPM speed out of the equation, the WD RE 4TB SATA hard drive scored first or second in nearly every performance test we threw at it and in fact bested even the 1TB VelociRaptor drive in smaller (<4K) write transfers and write burst rate. This drive is particularly impressive across the board concerning write speeds, although its read speeds don’t offer quite the same strength as higher-end products.

On the whole, the WD RE 4TB SATA hard drive is a champ. It delivers strong performance, and it packs plenty of features to ensure reliability and endurance that are backed up by WD’s excellent 5-year warranty, which is a number which will offer confidence to IT managers and end users alike.

Those choice features will cost you, though--current street prices for this model (WD4000FYYZ) range from $464.99 up to $520.99. In comparison, the WD VelociRaptor 1TB, which costs around half as much, offers a performance upgrade but just at quarter of the storage capacity. Thus, for its intended application of high-capacity, high-density, reliable bulk storage, the WD RE 4TB has good value. On the other hand, there are similar products from other manufacturers that offer the same basic specifications and capacity at a substantially lower price, and a step down to 3TB drives results in even more significant cost savings. So we suppose value hunters may be able to find better deals out there but you won't find the same RAID and enterprise-class features that are essentially proprietary to WD.

For the money, though, it’s tough to match that performance, especially with a 5-year warranty backing it up WD’s promise of excellent reliability. We'd definitely recommend the Western Digital RE 4TB SATA hard drive to anyone looking for fast, reliable bulk storage.